Free Republic

SUFFOLK - A naked man clutching a pigeon was arrested over the weekend after beating the bird against a car. Two Whaleyville residents had just pulled into their driveway Friday night when Juan Lopez, 30, of Kellam Road in Virginia Beach came up and repeatedly pounded the pigeon on the car, police said. The people got out of the car and went to a neighbor's house, where they called the police.

LITCHFIELD -- A landlord's complaint about marijuana plants on a tenant's porch led police to discover the plants, crack pipes and a nude babysitter asleep with a toddler. Ednamae Trinidad, 41, who lives at 78 Thomaston Road with her husband, two sons and 2-year-old daughter, was charged Wednesday with risk of injury to a child and possession of drug paraphernalia in a drug factory. Litchfield Superior Court Judge Richard Marano ordered Trinidad, who has an arrest record in three states, held on $15,000 bond. Trinidad's sons, and the juvenile babysitter, were arrested earlier this month, after a call from their...

America's Mattress co-owner Jim Sather is left puzzled after a rustler stole Serta Mattresses' inflatable 14-foot sheep from their store here. "I can't figure out what someone would do with a 14-foot sheep," Sather said. "It can't go in your basement and if it's in your back yard, your neighbor will notice. If it's target practice, it only lasts once." All the thief or thieves left was a handwritten note at the scene of the crime that read: "For the sheep, bring peace to the earth." Sather said their mascot is missed. "He's the granddaddy of all sheep and there's...

An indigenous man in Malaysia's Sabah state on Borneo Island was fined a buffalo and a pig for breaking a tribal custom by secretly marrying a second wife, a tribal court official said Wednesday. ADVERTISEMENT The 39-year-old man was asked to compensate his first wife and children with a buffalo and a pig even though he agreed to dissolve the second marriage and return to his first wife and family, Kota Kinabalu Native Court chief William Majimbun told The Associated Press. The court handles cases only relating to laws of the native indigenous people in Sabah. Majimbun said the man,...

AN INQUIRER READER attending a conference in Japan was sat just feet away from a laptop computer that suddenly exploded into flames, in what could have been a deadly accident. Gaston, our astonished reader reports: "The damn thing was on fire and produced several explosions for more than five minutes". Should you witness such an event, his advice is, "Don't try anything courageous/stupid, stay away, away, away!" "For the record, this is a Dell machine," notes Gaston. "It is only a matter of time until such an incident breaks out on a plane," he suggests. Our witness managed to catch...

A Massachusetts man whose family traveled all the way to India to check out a possible bride for his son is suing the woman’s relatives because she was too ugly and unpolished for his baby boy. In his lawsuit, Dr. Vijai Pandey of Belchertown claims his wife, son and daughter were “shocked” to discover the Indian woman was “ugly with dark complexion and protruded bad teeth and couldn’t speak English to carry on conversation.” Pandey then called off the arranged marriage, according to the lawsuit posted on the Web site thesmokinggun.com “I felt cheated, really, and there was no remorse...

MOUNT ORAB, Ohio -- A former National Guard captain whose military service was supposed to end seven years ago was sent to Iraq for a year by mistake because of an incorrect discharge date in his records. Jim Dillinger was 43 when he received a letter from the Defense Department in May 2004 saying he was one of 5,600 members of the Individual Ready Reserve being sent to Iraq. The IRR is a component of the Army made up of retired soldiers who agree to be subject to recall to active duty for a defined time. When Dillinger signed up...

A Norwegian who thought he'd be spending a quiet weekend at his cabin near Kongsvinger ended up battling an angry moose with the first weapon that came to mind - his slipper. Ivar Smedstad was relaxing at his holiday cabin (called a hytte in Norwegian) when his uninvited visitor suddenly appeared on his property. "The moose was furious," Smedstad told local newspaper Glåmdalen. "Its ears were pulled back, the moose was snorting loudly and seemed to rear back on its legs." The object of the moose's anger was Smedstad's dog, a seemingly innocent Leonberger named Shiba. Smedstad had no idea...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- A marriage-minded man ran naked through his Michigan neighborhood, trying to show his hesitant girlfriend that taking risks is important. However, he got more than he bargained for when he ended up being chased and shot at. Police in Ann Arbor, Mich., said it all started when the couple was discussing marriage Wednesday morning and the woman said she wasn't sure she was ready. Her boyfriend tried to make his point about taking risks by jumping out the window and running naked through the neighborhood. But after jumping out of the window and running across the...

Michigan City police on Tuesday arrested Kristopher Ray Horton, 26, 1009 Manhattan St., for indecent exposure after he allegedly tried to urinate on a neighbor's dog. Police received a call from Horton's neighbor, Joshua Brooks, at about 8:45 p.m. Brooks, a reserve officer on the LaPorte City Police Department, reported that Horton had just tried to urinate on his dog. Brooks told police he heard a commotion in his yard and went to investigate and saw Horton with his pants down. “I yelled at him, ‘What are you doing? Put you pants back on,'” Brooks told police. He said Horton...

Two police officers patrolling the beach in an SUV ran over and killed a sunbather Monday, authorities said. The officers in the patrol vehicle did not immediately realize they ran over the woman and continued driving, police Cmdr. Tom Chronister said in a statement. A witness called the Oxnard Fire Department to report the woman was bleeding on the beach just south of the Embassy Suites Mandalay Beach Resort. The woman appeared to be in her 30's and carried no identification, said Ventura County senior deputy medical examiner Mike Feiler. The officers, who were not immediately identified, had stopped on...

A Houston police officer found himself chasing two escaped bulls on I-45 Sunday night, according to a report this morning by KHOU. The driver was getting onto the I-45 ramp from the North Loop around 11:30 p.m. when the bulls apparently got out of their trailer. One of the animals ran through a neighborhood before a police officer was able to stop his car on the rope it was dragging, according to KHOU. But the bull got angry and began ramming the officer's squad car until it was finally captured. The other bull that escaped was hit by a pickup...

A black bear picked the wrong yard for a jaunt, running into a territorial tabby who ran the furry beast up a tree - twice. Jack, a 15-pound orange and white cat, keeps a close vigil on his property, often chasing small animals, but his owners and neighbors say his latest escapade was surprising. "We used to joke, 'Jack's on duty,' never knowing he'd go after a bear," owner Donna Dickey told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Friday's editions.

ST. PETERS, Mo. (AP) -- A woman angry that her new puppy had died pushed her way into a dog breeder's home and repeatedly hit her on the head with the dead Chihuahua, authorities said. The 33-year-old woman told police she had taken the puppy to a veterinarian, who said it was only 4 weeks old and needed to be returned to its mother. But before she could return the puppy, it died. Early Wednesday, the woman went to the breeder's home, pushed her way inside and began fighting with the breeder as she tried to make her way to...

College Students Found Dead Inside Balloon ASSOCIATED PRESS LUTZ, Fla. (AP) - Two college students were found dead inside a large, deflated helium balloon after apparently pulling it down and crawling inside it, officials said. The deaths of Jason Ackerman and Sara Rydman, both 21, appear to be accidental, Hillsborough County Sheriff's Maj. Bob Schrader said. Their bodies were found Saturday partially inside a deflated helium balloon at the entrance of a condominium complex a few miles north of Tampa. The 8-foot-diameter balloon was used to advertise the complex. "It was more a fun thing they thought they were doing,"...

Brockworth, England (AHN) - An annual British cheese-rolling competition that entails chasing giant cheeses down a steep slope has resulted in twenty-five injured people, organizers say. A crowd of 3,000 spectators watched dozens of people take part in the event at Cooper's Hill in Brockworth, Gloucestershire, reports Yahoo! News. The 25 injuries, which include 12 injured spectators, occurred when participants chased the wheel-shaped Double Gloucester cheese in a 200-meter race down a slope. The winners of each of the five races were awarded with a big circle of cheese.

United Express flight overruns runway in central Wisconsin By Associated Press . MOSINEE, Wis. (AP) — A United Express flight that overran the runway on a landing at Central Wisconsin Airport was pulled from the mud on Wednesday. The 44 passengers and three crew members were not injured in Tuesday afternoon's landing, said manager Tony Yaron. Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were investigating Wednesday and found the situation highly unusual, said Elizabeth Isham Cory, a Chicago-based spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration. The CRJ 200 regional jet was coming from Chicago and tried to land at about 4...

Elderly Woman Taken to Morgue by Mistake April 13 @ 18:30:52 CDT VANCOUVER, B.C. – An elderly woman in a deep slumber was mistakenly sent to the morgue over the weekend after body collectors confused her with her deceased roommate. . Health authorities say a driver that transports the dead failed to check the woman's identification bracelets and ended up taking the 87-year-old to a morgue across the street from her extended care facility. The mix-up was only discovered when workers at the Surrey Memorial morgue noticed some movement on the stretcher where the woman lay sleeping. Helen Carkner, a...

Pacemaker Blamed As Explosion Inside Coffin Halts Cremation Posted on Saturday, May 27 @ 21:57:06 CDT A MINOR explosion in a coffin rocked Carlisle’s crematorium after a funeral service yesterday afternoon. The cause is still being investigated – but it is believed to have been the result of a pacemaker being left inside a body. It is understood that members of the family involved have been informed of what happened. No-one was hurt in the incident and there was no disruption to funeral services or cremations. The crematorium, in Dalston Road, is operated by the city council’s bereavement services department....

Champion of nudity found dead in jail cell 'Naked Guy' won fame in Berkeley, challenged values Carolyn Jones, Chronicle Staff Writer Sunday, May 21, 2006 Printable Version Email This Article The Naked Guy, whose au naturel jaunts through Berkeley spurred a nudity revolt in the early 1990s and earned him national fame, died in a San Jose jail cell, apparently of suicide. ...After his days as the Naked Guy, Martinez spent the next decade bouncing among halfway houses, psychiatric institutions, occasional homelessness and jail. ...In typical Berkeley fashion, Martinez's nudity soon hatched a political movement. In September 1992, Martinez organized...